Residents of Kiryat Arba, a suburb of Hebron, will inaugurate their new NIS 14 million cultural center on September 19, one day before the intended Palestinian declaration of statehood at the United Nations General Assembly. According to reports, the center will host productions from Israels largest theaters as well as plays, musical performances, dance performances, and community events. The decision to open the center immediately before the date of the discussions in the U.N. begin is intended to clarify to the world that the presence of Jews in Hebron is an established fact, residents said. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Minister for Regional Cooperation and Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom are expected at the opening ceremony. Kiryat Arba is located in the Judean Hills about 32 km (20 miles) south of Jerusalem in the West Bank, adjacent to Hebron. It is home to about 7,100 Jews, mostly Russian and American immigrants. Hebron is populated by 165,000 Palestinians and some 500 Jewish settlers and is the location of the Cave of the Patriarchs, where it is believed that three biblical couples are buried: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah. This cultural center is the second of its kind in the West Bank. The first cultural center opened in Ariel in November 2010 amid intense controversy. Although that ceremony was attended by Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat (Likud) and both centers are government-funded projects, the Ariel Cultural Center elicited a major debate and protests from many Left-leaning artists, who signed a letter boycotting the center before it opened. The signatories, including household name Israeli actors, writers and producers refused to perform in Ariel because it is beyond the Green Line. Last November, Ynet reported that the Kiryat Arba-Hebron Municipal Council was planning to contact all of Israels major theaters and ask them to perform at the new cultural center. We are an inseparable part of Israel and like Herzliya, Jaffa and Ariel, culture should be available to us all, the paper quoted Hilik Gutman, who is responsible for operating the hall, as saying.